US border officer charged with smuggling 17 kilos of cocaine

A Customs and Border Protection Officer smuggled more than a dozen bricks of cocaine from the U.S. Virgin Islands into the United States after he was allowed to bypass security because of his job, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The scheme was foiled after Ivan Van Beverhoudt’s flight arrived at Atlanta’s airport and a K-9 sniffed out the drugs in his carry-on luggage on Jan. 10, officials said in a news release. The bricks of cocaine amounted to 17.8 kilograms (39.2 pounds), authorities said.

Beverhoudt, 40, of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, was recently arraigned on multiple charges including intending to distribute cocaine and having a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

His lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday, but court records show that he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this week.

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This story has been corrected to show that the suspect is a Customs and Border Protection Officer, not a Customers and Border Protection Officer.